Author Interview

Q: Please tell us about yourself.

​ I have a fairly broad education: advanced semester certificate in French from the Sorbonne, first master’s in applied math from UIUC, second master’s in theology from Cambridge. And for all that, I do poorly at some very simple human basics like a forgiving spirit and taking one day at a time. I would like to be off to something high and exalted, but right now taking care of the basics takes all my attention.​

That’s right now; in general, across the years, I am very impressed by the parable at the end of Matthew 25:

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, “Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?”

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.” Then shall they also answer him, saying, “Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?” Then shall he answer them, saying, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

I believe that each person I meet, come judgment, is a proxy for, in the end, how I treat the Lord. Every beggar I meet I treat as I treat Christ; every person I am angry with, bearing a grudge, is also a proxy for the Lord.

Now, this does not always dictate being somber to others. I remember one time when I was visiting with some friends who were parents of young children, and a little boy, let us call him Andy, was told to play catch with his littler brother Charles: “Play catch with Charles,” to which he answered a horrible answer, “I don’t want to play catch with Charles.” This interchange went back and forth several times, and then I said, “I want to play catch with Charles!”, picked him up, said, “Ok, Charles, what I’m going to do is I’m going to count to three, and when I get to three, I’ll throw you to your Daddy!” I swung him through the air three times, counting to three, and then with feather gentleness set him in his father’s arms. The joke was floating around in the adults’ banter after that, and apparently my version of “playing catch with Charles” was quite a hit with adults and children alike.

Q: Tell us about your book.

​ My book is a collection across twenty years of my favorite works of theology. If there is anything of lasting value that I have produced–and I say if–there is a good chance it’s included here.

It’s worth taking the time to flip through and explore. Not that you have to read all of it, but I think most readers would find something of value for at least some of the creations gathered together.

Q: What inspired you to write The Best of Jonathan’s Corner?

​ Individual works went through a rough process of inspiration, catching fire from some spark and then being fanned into a flame. The spark might be an irritation, or might be a realization of something in greater depth than I had understood it before. But in either case something crystallizes, and I try to bring it into a full-fledged work.

Here, I would particularly mention The Arena, and to a lesser extent Apprentice gods. Both of them were written with a profound sense that life in this world is not self-contained: it is an apprenticeship to eternal realities. And going with some awareness of this dimension is better than being completely oblivious.

Q: How much time per week do you spend writing/editing your work?

​ At the moment, nothing. Overall, a couple of hours a week; I know all the advice speaks for a regular discipline of writing but I have found my discipline only in responding to at least a seed of inspiration, not something I can command of my own.​

Q: If you could meet three authors, which authors would you choose?

​C.S. Lewis would be one. I owe him a great deal, even as I depart from him in A Pilgrimage from Narnia, and he probably formed me as an author more than anything else.

Lastly, I would like to meet Plato. Platonism, including neo-Platonism, is some of the best philosophy ever written, and while I would hear suggestions that the Bhagavad-Gita, or possibly the Tao Te Ching, are worth considering alongside Plato, the great figures of modernism and post-modernism simply do not stack up to the neo-Platonism that was at once the air breathed by Church Fathers and the main shadow they were wrestling with. I’ve heard people say that the Church Fathers used the best philosophical resources of their day, meaning neo-Platonism, and we should follow their lead by using the best philosophical resources of our day, meaning some form of continental philosophy. But I honestly consider the best philosophical resources available to us to still be neo-Platonism, and I note that those enthusiastic to embrace “the best philosophical resources of our day” never seem to give continental philosophy the same caution and even rebellion with which Church Fathers received neo-Platonism. There is a difference between the best philosophical resources of an age and those which are most in vogue.

OK, enough crankiness. Or almost enough. I’ve been at times very deeply influenced by the Tao Te Ching and understand why other Orthodox writers would write Christ the Eternal Tao. And I could easily see St. Maximus Confessor discussing ascetical struggles with the guru who wrote my (commentary on) the Bhagavad-Gita. But the moderns and postmodern seminal works do not stack up!

​ At the moment, I’m not writing much besides things connected with my blog tour; I’m trying to work my way into a regular job. Again, I’d really like to be on something more exalted, but right now I’m working on regular employment.​

About The Book

The Best of Jonathan’s Corner, newly expanded ​ after getting five star reviews​, is a collection of varied works of Eastern Orthodox mystical theology. It spans many topics and many different genres of writing, but it keeps coming back to the biggest questions of all. It is inexhaustible: the works are independent, and you can read a few, many, or all of them to suit your taste. Fans of CS Lewis and GK Chesterton will love it.

Author Bio

Some have asked, “If a much lesser C.S. Lewis were Orthodox, what would he be like?” And the answer may well be, “C.J.S. Hayward.”

Called “Jack of all trades and master of many” by one boss, he also wears many hats professionally: open source / IT generalist, front end developer, JavaScript programmer, back end web developer, Pythonista, PHP and Perl user, Django developer, end to end web developer, Unix/Linux/Mac wizard, LAMP guru, SQL generalist, Unix shell (both using existing shells and implementing a new shell), system administrator, researcher, technical writer, usability advocate, UI developer, UX/IA enthusiast, and more.

Hayward has lived in the U.S., Malaysia, England, and France, and holds master’s degrees bridging math and computers (UIUC), and philosophy and theology (Cambridge).